Final Report Summary - SME ENVIRONMENT (Supporting the participation of environmental SMEs from Associated Candidate Countries in the 6th Framework Programme)
The overall objective of the project was to establish an innovative and flexible training tool for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the environment and energy sector from New Member States (NMS) and Candidate Countries (CC) in order to facilitate their participation in the Sixth and Seventh Framework Programmes (FP6 and FP7). In the first period, the true needs of environmental SMEs from NMS and CCs were investigated, strategies for their involvement were developed and web based e-services were created, and finalised during the second period, providing all services necessary for their active participation in FP6 and FP7 projects.
Services include robust e-training solutions that provide hands-on assistance to managers of environmental SMEs from the proposal-writing phase, through the contracting process until the management of funded projects. The final courses comprised of three e-learning courses on the framework programme, on proposal writing and on successful project management. Special online partner search, project matching and forum services were developed to complement the e-learning courses. SMEs gained assistance to take part in European projects, build international relationships and implement their strategic scopes.
The project has created a special database and a guide for those SMEs, which are active in the field of energy and environment and are interested in participation of projects submitted to FP6 or FP7.
The primary result of this project was a practical and tailored service for environmental SMEs, based on an interactive website, started as a bottom-up initiative, taking NMS and CC conditions fully into account.
The second year of the project was devoted to further develop the e-learning courses (two updates were done) and develop new e-services (online consultation, partner search, project matching, forum). Using direct and indirect channels to reach the target group, thousands of e-mails and leaflets were sent and distributed. Information days were held, informal discussion were taken at many conferences and other external events.
A final dissemination event introduced the results of the project organised by the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe in Budapest. Due to the advertising campaign on the internet, the number of visitors of the website and SME environment events were high. The website and all services were finalised in autumn 2006. The e-learning course was updated in February 2007.
The consortium experienced significant and quantifiable results from the e-training services. The attendance of the website reached 100 visitors per day on average. Visitors had access to practical information on project proposal development even without registering to the e-training courses. About 200 SME managers received e-training during the implementation of the programme, and approximately 20 % of them received further assistance with the help of the e-consultancy services. Due to the lengthy contract negotiation process and consequently the shorter duration period which is left for FP6 the consortium succeeded to submit nine proposals to the last FP6 calls.
The consortium concentrated its efforts on promoting ACC NMS SME participation in the FP7 programme with similar target objectives. The information days attracted hundreds of SMEs from the region and thousands of research and educational organisations in EU-27 were informed about SME environment database where partners can be found in NMS and CC. The specific target of the project was that at least 40 % of the submitted proposals will prepared by women managers. The achieved rate was 23 % in the training course, almost 40 % at the information days and 50 % in the submitted proposals.
Services include robust e-training solutions that provide hands-on assistance to managers of environmental SMEs from the proposal-writing phase, through the contracting process until the management of funded projects. The final courses comprised of three e-learning courses on the framework programme, on proposal writing and on successful project management. Special online partner search, project matching and forum services were developed to complement the e-learning courses. SMEs gained assistance to take part in European projects, build international relationships and implement their strategic scopes.
The project has created a special database and a guide for those SMEs, which are active in the field of energy and environment and are interested in participation of projects submitted to FP6 or FP7.
The primary result of this project was a practical and tailored service for environmental SMEs, based on an interactive website, started as a bottom-up initiative, taking NMS and CC conditions fully into account.
The second year of the project was devoted to further develop the e-learning courses (two updates were done) and develop new e-services (online consultation, partner search, project matching, forum). Using direct and indirect channels to reach the target group, thousands of e-mails and leaflets were sent and distributed. Information days were held, informal discussion were taken at many conferences and other external events.
A final dissemination event introduced the results of the project organised by the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe in Budapest. Due to the advertising campaign on the internet, the number of visitors of the website and SME environment events were high. The website and all services were finalised in autumn 2006. The e-learning course was updated in February 2007.
The consortium experienced significant and quantifiable results from the e-training services. The attendance of the website reached 100 visitors per day on average. Visitors had access to practical information on project proposal development even without registering to the e-training courses. About 200 SME managers received e-training during the implementation of the programme, and approximately 20 % of them received further assistance with the help of the e-consultancy services. Due to the lengthy contract negotiation process and consequently the shorter duration period which is left for FP6 the consortium succeeded to submit nine proposals to the last FP6 calls.
The consortium concentrated its efforts on promoting ACC NMS SME participation in the FP7 programme with similar target objectives. The information days attracted hundreds of SMEs from the region and thousands of research and educational organisations in EU-27 were informed about SME environment database where partners can be found in NMS and CC. The specific target of the project was that at least 40 % of the submitted proposals will prepared by women managers. The achieved rate was 23 % in the training course, almost 40 % at the information days and 50 % in the submitted proposals.
